Ptelea in a case with depression and headaches

de Rob Peters

A Case of depression with headache.
Female born 1950

First consultation 05/1989:

When she comes in I see a rather thin lady with dark hair and sharp features in the face. There is a kind of silent suffering and she seems reluctant to tell me about her complaints. When she looks at me her face is turned to the side and eye-contact is short. My mind goes immediately to Natrium mur., but as every homeopath knows it can be risky to trust these impulses of the mind without confirmation, unless you know for sure your remedy is in the rubric ‘clairvoyance’.
The first thing she tells me is that she had severe depressions in earlier years, especially in spring from too much work. Her mind is in a rush as she describes it, thoughts going very fast and she wakes up at 02.00 every night. She tells me that she has a feeling as if a veil is falling upon her, she gets more nervous and is very snappy to her family. She is angry and ill-humored. She complains of a headache which is worse from emotions, touching the head makes it worse. She is very anxious to fall into a depressed state again. It feels like she is becoming mad.
Besides the headache she feels stitching pains in the joints. She looses some saliva out of her mouth during sleep. Sometimes, and this for years, she is nauseous especially after eating fat and with sour food or drink it goes away. When I ask her about her nature she tells me that she cannot bear criticism in front of other people or in a group. She hates quarrels. At home she feels responsible that everything goes well. Most of the household-duties she does alone. Her children and husband are not much of a help, even when there is a lot to be done she does not get any help. Her depression might have something to do with that, she admits. Now she feels this hurry inside and takes over emotions of other people. She cannot look at horrible things on TV and she has a fear of heights (2) with vertigo (1).

On the totality of this information I gave her PTELEA MK.

After one month her headache is gone, she sleeps well and the inside hurriedness has been much better. The joints are better, no more pains and she had no more nausea. She looks much better.

After almost five years she comes back with the same complaints and she has palpitations and again a fear of becoming mad. “I need help, I will walk into the water”. She panics and has a rushing sensation in the head. Salivation is increased during sleep.
I wondered about the cause of the relapse and she explained that they were moving to another house temporarily, but this house was a lot smaller than the old one. There was a lot of organizing and shifting. What has to be stored and what to be taken to the new house. Again, there was not much help from her husband and children, so she got in the same state as before.
PTELEA MK was repeated with the same positive result.

Analysis:
I asked colleagues about their experience on Ptelea, and Jan Scholten told me that he had observed the same theme, namely; the feeling that there is no support from the husband in organizing and handling domestic affairs. When the pressure is too much they get complaints/symptoms.
In this case we see a beautiful and longstanding amelioration on one dose of Ptelea MK and the same after the second gift, five years later.

Ptelea belongs to the family of the Rutacea, where you can find an almost similar basic theme in Angustura vera.

PS
After so many years we now know more about the Rutacea family and Rob agreed that we give you some extra information on the family and stage-thinking. (Anne W.)

These are the the basic themes as we know them now.

FAMILY:
Conflict between duty in caring for others and family.
Caring, running, 'It has to be possible'. Hurry.
Duty, It has to be done. Just simply do it.
Little reflexion. Realistic, pragmatic, serious, rational.
They don't show it, don't lament, don't know it, don't see that they are used.
Gives bitterness, hardness. I want to hold it in my own hands. Sour, like a squeezed lemon.
Delusion being deceived.

PTELEA trifoliata, has been staged in 16, the Lepra-stage in the system of Jan Scholten: they do all, the other does nothing, is lazy.
Memory impaired.
<< Moving.
I had to solve everything, everyone went on vacation and they let me take care of everything. Anger, but it has to be done. Disappointed that others didn't care. No interest for family matters, anger at home.
Left alone.

Sankaran puts it under the sycotic miasm because of the feeling of being squeezed and then broken.

Look for more information about stages and miasms in the articles in ‘Interhomeopathy’ and Sankaran’s books, while we wait for Jan Scholten’s book on these themes and on which he teaches extensively in his seminars.